The Sweeper: UEFA to ban U-18 transfers? Think of the children!

The fallout from FIFA’s ruling against Chelsea in the Kakuta case continues to dominate the headlines. Of course, it took that case for the British press to notice that several similar cases were also working their way through FIFA, and today it’s Manchester City under the poaching spotlight, with French club Rennes accusing them of luring away teenager Jeremy Helan. And domestically, Everton are being forced to pay up to £1m for 16 year-old Luke Garbutt, snatched away from Leeds. Such deals may in the future be illegal: UEFA are looking into Michel Platini’s proposed ban on transfers for under 18s, a move which would have to be carefully pursued to abide with European law.

The issue of youth transfers is a more complicated one than the simple morality tales being peddled around, however. Brian Phillips at the Run of Play interestingly raises a forgotten part of this debate: the child himself. “The big-club-vs.-small-club narrative is so ingrained in football that we reflexively see anything that benefits a smaller club at the expense of a bigger club as “fair.” But this isn’t fair. We’ve gotten so used to seeing Premier League clubs as wicked developers strip-mining the talents of poorer continental clubs that we’ve started thinking the latter have some kind of moral right to control the futures of their very young trainees. But players that age ought to control their own futures. In any other field, we’d look at this story and see Lens standing in the way of the right of a child and his parents to decide what’s best for him. In football we see the kid as a strategic weapon in a quasi-declared class war in which his preferences don’t really count.”

Sheffield United goalkeeper Paddy Kennyreceived a nine-month ban for failing a drugs test after taking over-the-counter medication, even though the commission accepted he had taken it innocent of any performance enhancing desires. While this might seem harsh at first glance, the commission’s ruling that Kenny had shown a “complete disregard” for his professional responsibilities by failing to consult with anyone at the club before medicating himself does have some merit.

Perhaps no team will feel more pressure than Bahrain in the World Cup qualifier’s this week. Having never qualified for a World Cup, Bahrain will head to Saudi Arabia — in front of an expected crowd of over 65,000 — in the Asian Football Confederation play-off, with the winner to face Oceania Football Confederation champions New Zealand home-and-away for a place in the World Cup finals.

There’s a very interesting interview with Blackburn Rovers chairman John Williams in the Lancashire Telegraph. It’s notable not just for some very interesting nuggets of information about Premier League finances, on budgets, wage bills and profit/loss, but also just because Williams is so open about the numbers, explaining plainly to the public why Rovers have spent what they have (and haven’t) this summer. It’d be good to see more of this from other top executives.

Footiebusiness looks at the disappointing attendance for the New England Revolution, who had their second successive sub 10k turnout at the weekend. A 16,700 average in 2007 declined to 14,300 in 2008, and around 12,000 so far this season. There are a myriad of reasons for the decline, but the fact is despite some solid performance, New England have never gone full throttle on or off the field as an elite club. At the end of the day, much of the blame has to lie at the door of the ownership, the Kraft family.

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

Why stop at kids? Why shouldn’t any players be free to play for whichever club wants them? The reason is that most people accept that there are some positives that make the restrictions proportionate, not least in ensuring developing clubs get paid for the investment they make and all clubs can build accordingly knowing that rivals won’t just buy their players. This isn’t about the human rights of young players; if they want total contractual freedom, they should choose another career, because to give them freedom at 18 which will be denied them until 24 seems illogical.

I broadly agreed, Dave, but I think Brian raises an interesting point that we should, indeed, stop with kids — because they are kids, and their ability to make legally binding contractual agreements should be limited. The debate in the comments to his post over at the Run of Play really gets into that need for differentiation, which I think is well worth considering when we consider the moral high horses some clubs are getting on that really don’t have legs to stand on. Do these “pre-contracts” in certain countries not trouble you at all?

September 8, 2009 at 12:11 pmbloggs

Everton ‘snatched away’ Garbutt?! They did everything by the book. Bates – a man who once wanted all football fans kept behind electrified fences – takes advantage of the atmosphere created by the Chelsea band and ‘journalistas’ like Tom Dunmore who can’t be arsed to check facts – puts pressure on the tribunal and, lo, suddenly Everton are the bad boys. Truth is, Leeds did not offer Garbutt a contract, so Everton did. Could that be because Leeds actually make more – risk-free – by letting Garbutt go and then whining in the press than by keeping the kid and thus the risk. Like Dario Gradi moaning about Everton once years ago having ‘poached’ a twelve year-old from Crewe’s Centre of Excellence. What he doesn’t say is that any twelve year-old is free to join any club at any time as long as they meet the geographical criteria. How can anyone claim to ‘own’ a twelve year-old, FFS? Nor does Gradi mention that the twelve year-old, like hundreds of promising twelve year-olds, never made the grade, but the loss was Everton’s. Gradi would probably say that the kid would have made the grade if he’d stayed at Crewe. Of course. Tthe man who produced Seth Johnson and Danny Murphy clearly knows better than the club that produced Wayne Rooney, Jack Rodwell and (coming soon) Jose Baxter. And of course Gradi fails to mention the fact that he peddled a fourteen year-old Robbie Savage to Man Utd, the great steaming hypocrite!

December 29, 2010 at 10:23 amFootball Transfers

UEFA to ban U-18 transfers? Think of the children! – I need this info great article thanks